In the last two weeks, he has settled the remaining seven civil lawsuits of the roughly 25 he faced from young women who claimed he paid them for sexually-charged massages at his Palm Beach mansion when some were as young as 14.

Next week - on July 21 - his year-long probation will end. The 57-year-old will no longer be forced to get permission to fly his private jet to New York or his home in the Virgin Islands or to climb aboard his helicopter to meet with his lawyers in Miami.

According to his probation officer's reports, he has chafed at the restrictions that many claim were ludicrously lax. He has also complained about ongoing news coverage.

Epstein "seems somewhat agitated by all this last-minute press," his probation officer wrote on May 19.

Those who criticize the breaks he has gotten say he has little reason to complain.

First, he was allowed to plead guilty to two sex-related felonies in state court. In exchange, federal prosecutors dropped their investigation into allegations made by roughly 35 young women. He served 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence.

Since he was placed on house arrest last July, he has taken several trips each month to his eight-story home in New York City - said to be the largest private residence in Manhattan - and to an island he owns in the Virgin Islands.

"Try to find someone else who's charged with his criminal conduct who's had that kind of treatment," said attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represented three young women who sued Epstein and settled the lawsuits for undisclosed terms.

"I thought community control meant you stayed within your community and there was some level of control," he said. "There was very little information disclosed about where he was going and why. It was shocking to me."

However, officials at the Florida Department of Corrections and his attorneys, said Epstein was treated like other probationers - albeit few, like Epstein, have such enormous wealth.

Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath gave him permission to travel overnight on business or for legal matters. Travel couldn't be on weekends, only one overnight stay was allowed per trip and all travel had to be OK'd by his probation officer 48 hours in advance.

However, exceptions were made. When power went out at his 14,000-square-foot El Brillo Way mansion one cold night in January, he was given permission to move up his jet's departure 12 hours.

Further, state records show, he wasn't required to provide proof that the out-of-state meetings ever took place or list names of those he met with.

For instance, he got permission to fly to Cambridge, Mass. and New York on April 19 and 20. He described the Cambridge visit as consumed by "legal meetings." But, according to the addresses listed, one of the meetings took place at the Harvard Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The other meeting was in a complex that includes a sporting goods store and variety of offices, but not a law office. It does include an agency affiliated with Harvard. He gave the school $30 million in 2003.

Epstein's criminal defense attorney Jack Goldberger said he didn't know why Epstein travelled to Cambridge. But, he said, in addition to his long-standing relationship with Harvard, he has lawyers there. Celebrity lawyer and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz was part of his defense team.

Most of Epstein's New York trips have been to meet attorney Stephen Susman. A reported $1,000-an-hour lawyer who is consistently ranked among the top trial lawyers in the nation, Susman said the meetings were to investigate "potential claims against D.B. Zwirn," said a letter in Epstein's probation file. Zwirn is a onetime hedge fund wunderkind whose 2006 collapse reportedly cost Epstein millions.

Goldberger insisted Epstein didn't get preferential treatment. His other clients are routinely allowed to travel for work or business. If they are window installers, they don't have to list their clients; only that they are traveling to West Palm Beach or Belle Glade for work, he said.

"He had very strict probation officers, they knew exactly where he was at all times," Goldberger said.

While community control is commonly called house arrest, the term is a misnomer, said Gretl Plessinger, spokeswoman for the corrections department. People on community control are allowed to go to Home Depot or their lawyers offices as Epstein regularly did. They simply must plan such trips in advance and let their probation officer know where they will be, she said.

If they aren't where they are supposed to be, they can be hauled back into court - and possibly sent back to jail - for violating their probation.

That nearly happened to Epstein several times. Shortly after he was released from jail, Palm Beach police detained him after they found him walking on State Road A1A. They released him when his probation officer reported that Epstein, who doesn't have a driver's license despite his many cars and motorcycles, had the OK to walk from home to his office in West Palm Beach.

Earlier this month, his probation officer became suspicious when Epstein didn't come to the door for 30 minutes. After he left, the officer saw Epstein's Cadillac Escalade speed by. When the officer returned to Epstein's home, the billionaire appeared, dressed in a robe. He said he had been asleep.

The probation officer wrote: "This officer does not believe (Epstein) but was unable to prove as windows were dark and this officer was not able to verify (Epstein) getting out of the car." But he warned, the next time Epstein could face a probation violation.

Attorney Horowitz said there may be other next times for Epstein. Additional women may file lawsuits against him.

Kuvin said he is hopeful federal prosecutors are still investigating him. About three months ago, he got a call from prosecutors in Washington who investigate child trafficking.

Goldberger squashed that idea: "I can answer this pretty emphatically. There is no continuing investigation of Jeffrey Epstein."

Epstein is still pursing a lawsuit against imprisoned Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein. He claims Rothstein falsely claimed Epstein had settled lawsuits with the women for as much as $200 million to lure investors as part of a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

Even discounting that lawsuit, Horowitz said, he isn't convinced the last chapter has been written.

"I don't think the story is going to go away," Horowitz said. "Somehow the Jeffrey Epstein story will stay in the news."